Whelan earns his fee on Brehon Star

Brehon Star provided dual purpose Sligo trainer Mark McNiff with a fourth winner this month when putting up a gutsy performance to come out on top in the Bay Leaf Handicap at Ballinrobe.

The Lawman gelding was dropping down in trip and racing on better ground compared to recent handicaps outings and got on top in the closing stages of this extended nine furlongs event.

The 5/1 chance looked in trouble a fair way out but responded to every call from Ronan Whelan and finished strongly on the outer in the straight to beat Astrophysicist by half a length. South East Star was the same distance further back in third.

Whelan said, "I’d say it was a case of him getting away with the ground as he was just better than those.

“He rolled around with me a bit but it was a good performance.”

(AM & EM)